Tony K.T. Leung
Tony K.T. Leung (b. 1963, Hong Kong) is a Toronto based composer whose music has been performed and broadcast in Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Korea, Luxembourg, USA, and Canada, by leading contemporary music ensembles. Recordings include CD releases from Luxembourg Sinfonietta and Canadian Electroacoustic Community. A Luxembourg critic described his chamber piece Seven Trumpets of the Seven Angels as displaying”... a real compositional technique put at the service of a clearly structured musical idea.”
Born in Hong Kong, he discovered music through his first instrument, the erhu, and later the cello. As a youth, he arranged music for Chinese orchestra, which sparked an interest in western music and composition. From 1989 to 1992, he studied composition privately with University of Toronto Professor Chan Ka Nin.

In The Beginning
The form of In the beginning consists of 7 sections, corresponding to the creation of the world in 7 days, as described by the biblical account (Genesis 1). 1. When light first shone, 2. Between the waters, 3. Seeds of plenty, 4. Dance of the stars, 5. Song of the birds, 6. Gazing at the moon, 7. Blessings of the promise In the beginning was composed with the support of the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council.

David F Golightly
David F Golightly studied composition with Richard Steinitz at Huddersfield University. A number of his compositions have been commissioned by eminent performers, including “Moods” for Roger Heaton, and “Rites of Passage” and “The St Petersburg Mass” for The Soglasie Male Voice Choir of St. Petersburg. The Piano Trio “Letters of Regret” for the Fenice Trio. “Three Pan Love Songs” for Nina Assimakopoulos. Flute Concerto for The Orchestra of the Square Chapel and the Trumpet Concerto for Mike Briggs. David has had his music performed as far afield as America, Germany, Poland and Russia. To add to his credits, David was also acclaimed for the Baroque arrangements for the Romanian opera singer Inessa Galante on her CD“Arietta”.

Much of David’s serious music is recorded and can be obtained from Modrana Music Publishers/Promotions Ltd. or at most retail outlets worldwide.

The Concerto for Strings was composed in 2003-4 between the flute concerto and trumpet concertos. First performed in St Petersburg Russia in 2004 conducted by Serge lnkov it is a large three movement work with the same mannerisms and composer fingerprints, found in all of my compositional output. In addition each section of the string orchestra is given challenging music to demonstrate both their virtuoso abilities and the unique characteristic of the instrument.

Paul Johnson
Paul Johnson, associate professor of music at the University of Notre Dame, received his doctorate in Music Theory and Composition from Princeton University, where he studied with Milton Babbitt, Paul Lansky, and Claudlo Spies. His works, particularly for dancers, have been performed across the United States. He has been the recipient of several grants and commissions. His most recent compositions include Spring in War-Time, for orchestra and soprano voice, written for the 20th anniversary of the Vietnam Memorial, and Childhood Suite for chamber orchestra.
Johnson has been married since 1989 to Kathleen Pyne, a well-known scholar of American Art. They have one child, Nicholas.

Spring in War-Time was written to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Maya Lins Vietnam Veterans Memorial and is meant to convey the experience of walking through it. One cannot simply wander through the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Its linear movement embodies the structure of music, a medium that also moves through time.

Spring in War-Time was composed in Spring of 2002 at a time when the American-led intervention into Afghanistan was being debated. Parallels to the Vietnam War were noted frequently within that debate. Spring in War-Time took shape in the context of my own opposition to such an invasion.

Michael Mauldin
Born in Texas in 1947, Michael Mauldin moved to New Mexico in 1971 for “the space, the light, and the timelessness.” There he completed a Master of Music degree in composition, opened a music school, and served as President of the New Mexico Music Teachers Association and the New Mexico Composers Guild. He was named the national “Composer of the Year” in 1980 by the Music Teachers National Association for “Voices From Chaco,” a concertino for piano and woodwind quintet.

Mauldin is an outspoken advocate for the rights of children, holding that discipline is more than repression, and that society is repaid when children and young people are treated with respect, participating in important decisions regarding their own minds, bodies and spirits.

Fajada Butte: An Epiphany was commissioned by the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, Yoshimi Takeda, Music Director, and premiered in 1983.
Fajada Butte is a column of rock at Chaco Canyon in New Mexico. Chaco was home to an amazingly advanced culture, peaking in the 1200’s, known as the “Anasazi.” Their accomplishments radiate from this desolate mecca — beautiful masonry, intricate artwork, straight‘paved’ roads, a far-flung trade network, and a fascination with religion and the cosmos.

On top of the butte is a sun-shrine, which accurately marked the equinoxes, the solstices — even the 19-year lunar cycle. More than an observatory, the butte must have been regarded as a temple, perhaps for the “meeting” of earth and sky. For 300 years, this was the “center’ for a people who celebrated life and light, and who felt themselves in vibrant harmony with the cosmos. The discovery of the “sun dagger” was an "epiphany” for me.

David Kirtley
After an injury ended a promising career as a modern dancer in 1982, David Kirtley pursued a new career as a self-taught composer. In 1987 he was awarded a residency / fellowship from the Yellowsprings Institute for Songs for the Outcasts of Great Turtle’s Back, a large song cycle recounting the great loss of land and culture suffered by the Native Americans. For the next ten years he continued to compose while working as a waiter in Yellowstone National Park. Feeling that more formal training would offer an important new direction, he enrolled at the University of Colorado at Boulder where he studied composition with Richard Toensing, John Drumheller, and Michael Theodore and received Bachelo’s (1998) and Master’s degrees (2001). He had additional composition studies with Sydney Hodkinson at the Aspen Music School and Festival in the summers of 2001 and 2002.

Kirtley has received commissions from the shakuhachi artist, David Wheeler, the clarinetist, Jason Gresl, the violist, Erika Eckert, the marimbist, Gilmar Goulart, and the classical guitarist, Kevin Garry. His works have been performed at the 1998 International Shakuhachi Music Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, the Colorado Music Festival, the 2004 NATS Convention in New Orleans, and at other venues in the United States, Brazil, and the Netherlands.

A mountain hiker, nature lover, and world traveler, David Kirtley brings to his music a synthesis of Western classical music tradition, sounds of nature, and elements drawn from indigenous musical traditions from around the world.

Leaves falling from the Holy Tree
“When we came to the end of the first ascent we camped in the sacred circle as before, and in the center stood the holy tree, and still the land about us was all green. Then we started on the second ascent, marching as before, and still the land was green, but it was getting steeper. And as I looked ahead, the people changed into elks and bison and all four-footed beings and even into fowls, all walking in a sacred manner on the good red road together. And I myself was a spotted eagle soaring over them. But just before we stopped to camp at the end of that ascent, all the marching animals grew restless and afraid that they were not what they had been, and began sending forth voices of trouble, calling to their chiefs. And when they camped at the end of that ascent, I looked down and saw that leaves were falling from the holy tree.”

From Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglola Sioux by Nicholas Black Elk, as told through John G. Neihardt.

Leaves falling from fhe Holy Tree was written in 2001 in memoriam Nicholas Black Elk, holy man of the Oglala.

Used by permission of the University of Nebraska Press.
Copyright 1932, 1959, 1972 by John G. Neihardt;
© 1961 by the John G. Neihardt Trust;
© 2000 by the University of Nebraska Press.

Paula Diehi
Paula Diehl (nee Jespersen) came from China to Northern New Jersey as an infant with her Danish parents. As a child, she studied piano with reluctance, but, after having a family, began willingly an in-depth study of music at American University (Washington, D.C.) and Temple Universitys School of Music, (Philadelphia, PA). As a result of these studies, Diehl developed a new total music composition system, SEPARATION, (1978), in which she has worked ever since; all the music she composes follows Separation rules.

Ceremony like all Diehl’s music, is based on the eventual separation from each other of overlapping fourths, the working intervals of this style of music. There are four stages of overlap to negotiate before total separation comes about. It is possible to make use of only one, two or three stages, but Ceremony uses all four. These are followed by an epilogue and closure in which total separation exists. Such separation is the goal of the music.

These stages can be indirect or direct. In Ceremony the order is: I. Indirect, II.Direct, III. Direct, IV. Indirect. In indirect style, the overlap can only be obverse, but in direct style, it can be direct or virtual. Virtual simply means that the second and third of three Fourths are an octave away from, rather than adjacent to, the first, or lowest, fourth.

In Ceremony, there was a conscious effort to have more closed intervals, meaning that musical interaction tended more often to be between closed intervals and open ones, rather than between mostly open ones. Final closure of each fourth in each stage still has to occur before the music comes to an end.

Howard Feldsher
Born in 1936, in Middletown, New York, Howard Feldsher attended Ithaca College (BS. in Music Education); Teachers College, Columbia University (M.A. and Professional Diploma in Music And Music Education), & the University of Utah (Music Composition Fellowship). Composition studies with Warren Benson, at Ithaca College; Howard Murphy of Murphy-Stringham music theory, at Colombia University; film composer Patrick Williams, and composer Theordore Anton iou, at the University of Utah. Many of his works have been published and he has written over a dozen articles on music and music education that have appeared in professional music education journals.

Howard Feldsher passed away in 2005. Over the years, ERMMedia has recorded several of Maestro Feldsher’s works — specifically in his series of scores for solo instrument and string orchestra. What attracted the selection staff to Howard’s work was the strident and brilliant treatment of the strings. His sense of rhythm and juxtaposition of line seemed to jump right off the printed page.

Never more so than in this recent recording of his Concerto for Clarinet and String Orchestra. His masterful treatment of all instruments as a rhythmic base and grounding— as a foremost element — comes through immediately in the work You sense it from the very beginning — and he never releases you from his pulsating grip until the very last note.

We will miss the fine music of Howard Feldsher.

Robert Ian Winstin
Born in Chicago, in 1959, award winning composer-conductor & pianist Robert Ian Winstin began his musical studies at the piano, at the age of five. By the age of six he was improvising his way through the pieces in his piano lessons, instead of playing them ‘straight’ from the score. He completed his first ‘serious’ compositions by the age of eight.

Robert Ian Winstin is recognized as one of the leading conductor/composers of his generation, and has been awarded numerous prizes and honors for his works, including a ‘Joseph Lefferson Citations Wing Recommendation’ for his score to“Oedipus Requiem,” the‘Barrettson Prize in American Music’ for his “Piano Concerto #1 and several ASCAP Awards. Robert Ian Winstin has recorded over fifty compact discs as a conductor and pianist and his music is featured on numerous recordings and on television and in motion pictures.

Robert Ian Winstin was recently honored with a commission for a Cable News Network, with the result, his award-winning score: “September 11th 2001 9:05am” for orchestra. “September 11th 2001- 9:05am” has been honored with an astonishing number of performances throughout the world. Recently, Maestro Winstin gave a command performance for Pope John Paul II, as well as toured Florence & Rome, Italy.

The summer before last, Robert Ian Winstin performed throughout Eastern Europe with the culminating performance in Prague before Czech President Vaclav Havel. In 2000, Maestro Winstin performed at the Torch Relay Ceremony at the zooo Sydney Olympics in Sydney Australia.

Robert Ian Winstin is equally at home composing for the theatre, opera, symphony orchestra and chamber works. He has written more than 200 works, including symphonies, 2 piano concerti, a ‘cello concerto, a violin concerto, and numerous chamber and solo instrumental works.

Robert Ian Winstin is currently the Music Director & Principal Conductor of the American Symphonietta, Music Director & Principal Conductor of the Virginia Youth Symphony Orchestra, Executive Director of the Foundation for New Music and he is on the Mayor’s Council for the Arts and serves as Chairman of the Arts Commission.

Credits

Recorded at the National Radio Studios, Studio “A”, Kiev, Ukraine By Kiev Philharmonic
PRODUCER: Alexander Hornostai ENGINEER: Andrij Mokrytsky
POST PRODUCTION 8 EDITING: Viacheslav Zhdanov & Andrij Mokrytsky

CONDUCTOR: Robert Ian Winstin

COVER PHOTOGRAPHY: Glen McClure DESIGN: Bart Morris
This recording © & ® ERMMedia, 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Manufactured in the U.S.A.

Unauthorized reproduction of this recording is prohibited by Federal law and subject to criminal prosecution.

ERMMedia text & logo © ERMMedia, 2006. All Rights Reserved.

This recording contains the hard work and dedication of numerous composers, without whom this project would not exist, It is ERMMedIa’s policy to insist that each composer represented on this disc maintain and own the rights of all works contained herein, We do not own the works on this CD — we are being allowed, by contract, to use them on this disc.

We are assuming that you have no such contract with the individual composers on this disc. As such, please refrain from unauthorized and illegal duplication of the works on this disc. Not only is it a violation of Federal law, but it is injurious to the individual composers. Thank you.